Alternative title(s): Yani Neko
Manga Adaptation by Bibury Animation Studios
Streaming on Netflix

Premise

Yani Neko is struggling to get through everyday life. To cope, she spends most of her days laying around her grimy apartment, chain smoking as many packs of cigarettes as she can afford.

Jel’s verdict: Addicting

This anime is disgusting and I can understand if anyone drops it immediately. There is some very explicit toilet humor and in general everything is just grimy and filthy and makes your skin crawl. They also seem to have front loaded most of the shock value in the first few scenes, which is unfortunate because I think there’s something here if you can tough it out.

Our heroine in this story is not an unapologetic, irredeemable deadbeat. She actually has a level of self awareness and wants to improve herself. We see her trying to work part time jobs and do better for her sister. It’s just more than she can handle, and she can’t help but give in to her vices to cope. I found myself rooting for her by the end.

To be clear, this is a dark, gross out comedy above all else. But I don’t think I’m reading into it too much either. There’s definitely a message about the challenge of being a young person trying not to buckle under the strain of systemic and societal pressures – and failing. That’s the part that charmed me and makes me want to watch more.

It helps that the first episode looks fantastic. There is some really great directing and animation, with a surprising amount of quiet moments to let things sink in. I was kind of shocked at how much talent and effort they put into an anime about a chain smoking cat girl (like the OP stuffed with movie references). So yeah, I’m on board with this for now. I think there is still a lot of room for failure moving forward, including expanding the cast, but I’m willing to give it a shot.